Arts watch.

David Lynch Goes `Straight'

October 22, 1999|By Gary Dretzka , Tribune Staff Writer.

HOLLYWOOD — Judging from early reviews for "The Straight Story," it's difficult for some critics to believe the same man who created such twisted fare as "Eraserhead" and "Blue Velvet" also could be responsible for an uplifting tale about a man who rides his lawnmower across the nation's heartland to visit his brother.

Perhaps it's because they don't know a whole lot about David Lynch.

Besides the fact that he is an accomplished artist, musician, woodworker and onetime Eagle scout from Montana, it's interesting to note that Lynch and his longtime editor/companion Mary Sweeney spend a great deal of time in Wisconsin. It's not Shangri-La, but a few days each year spent on glorious Lake Mendota, where the filmmakers and their son share a vacation home, probably would have ironed out a few of the kinks in Alfred Hitchcock and Salvador Dali too.

"The writers, Mary and John Roach, are both from Madison and have known each other since they were 5 or 6 years old. . . . The story took place in their neck of the woods," explained the 53-year-old director. "Right away, I was struck by how genuinely kind the people were, and how open. It was a shock in a way.

"I thought they were putting me on at first . . . this Midwestern behavior, being polite and being good to their fellow man. It was a big contrast from L.A."

"The Straight Story" follows the progress of Alvin Straight on his sentimental journey from the cornfields of Laurens, Iowa, to hilly southwestern Wisconsin, where an estranged brother is recovering from a stroke. During his six-week odyssey, the widowed father of seven braved the elements and encountered an assortment of folks.

Among the people he meets on the road are a pregnant runaway, a fellow vet still haunted by World War II and a woman depressed by her inability to avoid hitting deer on her drive to work. Later, when his riding mower breaks down, Straight is rescued by a group of neighbors who have brought their chaise longues down to the highway to watch an abandoned barn burn down.

Next stop: Twin Peaks, Iowa.

"The scene with the dead deer was based on a true story Mary and John heard while doing research," Lynch pointed out, taking a break from reading a Truffaut biography in his studio-office, high in the Hollywood Hills.

Sweeney helped Lynch develop an eye for these kinds of roadside attractions, but first he had to downshift into a lower gear.

"Normally, when you go out to scout locations, you're driving at 60 miles per hour," he said. "It was hard, but we had to slow down, so we could see things the same way Alvin did. Things look different when you're only going 3 or 4 m.p.h."

Before that even, Sweeney had to convince Lynch that, despite his early doubts, he should agree to direct a film that could lead him into the uncharted waters of family entertainment.

Lynch and Sweeney insist it was never their intention to turn their $8.5 million movie into something fashionably ironic or to make fun of anyone -- although the studios probably wouldn't have minded. Neither was it their goal to make a film that Disney could market as fun for the whole family.

After all, Straight -- as he is so wonderfully played by Richard Farnsworth -- could be a crusty old goat, when he wanted to be. Then, too, there's a lot of cigarette and cigar smoking, and several scenes take place in a tavern.

Nonetheless, "The Straight Story" clearly is a movie adults and children can enjoy together, or with their friends.

"The film triggers emotions. . . . Alvin will remind viewers of a brother, a father or a grandfather," Lynch said. "He's a rebel, like James Dean. He's not afraid to go it alone, against the odds, and he's doing it for a noble purpose."

Are journalists making too much of the whole "G" thing? How tough can it be if, in the same year, both Lynch and David Mamet are able to produce films deemed acceptable for all audiences.

"Ratings are strange," he said. "We've come to think of `G' as being for a child's movie. But the rating doesn't say anything about the story, except that it doesn't have a certain type of violence, a certain kind of profanity, a certain kind of sexuality.

"A movie like this can tell a lot of story and still be G-rated, so it's a little misleading."

After the film passed through the screening process, Lynch noted, "One of the guys on the MPAA board called to tell me how much they all enjoyed it. Another person called and said the same thing to Mary . . . and they never do that."

Before "The Straight Story" opened last week, radio host Jonathon Brandmeier commented that the Alvin Straight he knew didn't square with the warm-and-fuzzy character described in articles he had read about the movie. Did Hollywood play fast and loose with Straight, to make the movie more marketable?

"Alvin died in 1996, and that's why I say `Based on a true story,' " Lynch said. "The thing takes on a life of its own . . . it has to. What's important is to be true to the story, let it talk to you and go in as deep as you can.

"A film stops being important, if it's exactly like the real guy. This is its own thing."